Claude Bragdon's masterpiece: The New York Central Railway Station on Central Avenue

When most of my elderly relatives came to America as refugees after the Second World War, the old railway station on Central Avenue was the first thing they saw of Rochester. A large, majestic building designed by Claude Bragdon, it smacked of solidity, security and permanence. My family settled in the old German “Butterhole” neighborhood in Rochester ( St. Paul Street, Clinton and Joseph Avenues ) and saw the railway station on the bus to downtown Rochester ( when there was still a downtown Rochester worth taking the bus to go to ).

Appearances can be deceiving.

Before most of the family moved out of the old neighborhood ( after the 1964 riots, from which the neighborhood has never recovered ), half of the railway station was demolished, split right down the middle. Not only did it look like a ruin left over from post-World War II Europe, it looked downright tacky!

Eventually the remainder was demolished as well. A piece of Rochester’s history gone forever.

Not that Rochester ever owned the building. Many other historic buildings in Rochester were also being destroyed at that time, whether it was by intent through demolition to build something else on those sites, or by “accidental” fires that allowed for other development unhampered by structures that had national landmark status.

Oh, well.

Of course, Rochester still needed a railway station of sorts, for Amtrak, and it seemed practical to build it on the site of Bragdon’s masterpiece. But it didn’t seem practical to build something impressive or memorable in that part of the city. This was in the days when Rochester was still the economic powerhouse of the region, and when the dollar was still worth something.

So a “temporary” railway station was built on the site of the old one. It looks temporary, all right, and looks like it should be gracing a backwoods trailer park. But it was only meant to be temporary.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

“Temporary” turned out to be 34 years!

There has been much talk in the last few years about developing an “intermodal” transportation hub here in Rochester, focusing on fast rail trains and buses. That makes perfectly good sense. Citygov is waiting to see whether or not the feds will approve this; according to the D&C, the decision should be made next month.

Of course, Rochester’s public bus system will not be part of this “intermodal plan.”

“Renaissance Square,” proposed by Republican County Executive Maggie Brooks ( who is now running for Congress ), featured an underground bus terminal at North Clinton Avenue and Mortimer Street, a mile south of the train station, the site of the proposed intermodal center. The whole debate over Ren Square brought life back into the concept of an intermodal plan.

Ren Square was shot down by the Democratic controlled City Council, for purely politically partisan reasons.

The next year, City Council approved building a new above-ground bus barn at North Clinton Avenue and Mortimer Street ( the same location as Ren Square’s proposed bus terminal! ) at the request of Rochester’s Democratic mayor.

Pure coincidence, right?

At any rate, Citygov has sought federal funds to build a “permanent” train station as the focal point for the new intermodal system, if the feds approve it. Citygov did get the money to have plans made for such a structure, and is seeking $20 million to get phase 1 of the project completed. The cost of phase 1 is estimated at $26 million. Where are we going to get the additional $6 million?

Just as an aside here: how long is “permanent” in Rochester, when “temporary” was 34 years?

Phase two, the completion of a second story to handle bus traffic ( NOT the local RGTA buses ) is estimated at costing $13 million.

And we all know that nothing involving government ever is completed within budget.

Supposedly, we will be getting a “sleeker version” of Bragdon’s work.

According to yesterday’s story in the D&C:

“We certainly can’t replicate or afford to reproduce the terracotta ceilings or
the extent that was a vaulted space,” said Jim Durfee, principal architect with
Bergmann Associates. Instead, the design borrows elements of the Bragdon Station
to “recall the glory days of rail travel and build them into a station that is
properly scaled.”

Yep, “properly scaled” down, to fit a declining city whose population is 150,000 fewer souls than when Bragdon’s masterpiece was torn down. And far fewer people use railways these days than they did even fifty years ago.

The proposed plan for the new railway station: Bragdon on a budget.

On the other hand, it’s better than what we have there now, which nobody has ever liked. At least it doesn’t look tacky.

And it’s cheaper than the Mortimer Street Bus Barn, which nobody other than politicians ever wanted at that site!

One thing I must say aboutCarolee Conklin: she was the only real man on City Council tonight! Hers was the only dissenting vote against the mayor’s plan to locate an above ground bus terminal on Mortimer Street and North Clinton Avenue. That was the site of an underground bus terminal that figured heavily in the plans for the now-defunct “Renaissance Square” project that the Democratic-controlled city council shot down last year, obviously for political reasons. Carolee wisely said this evening that locating a bus terminal downtown was a nineteenth century solution to a twenty-first century problem, and came down firmly against it!

And frankly, she’s the only city councilman who lives downtown, close to where all this action will take place!

To be sure, Ren Square died a natural death from sheer boredom and the length of time to come up with a plan to make it public. Any excitement the plan evinced six or seven years ago was long over, and most people didn’t see how moving the MCC city campus across the street from its current home and a bus terminal of any kind would revitalize downtown Rochester. Of course, the third component was supposed to have been a “broadway style” theatre, for which there was no money. County Executive Maggie Brooks was willingto do without the theatre, but city council voted it down, referring to Maggie’s demand to accede to the plans for Ren Square as a “dog and pony” show, whatever the Hell that means. And so, it died.

At that time, Mayor Duffy hung to the rear about Ren Square, waiting to see how the wind blew. Apparently, now he’s all for a bus terminal on the location, his decision, not Maggie’s! And the mayor thanked the city councilmen who supported his bus terminal tonight, some of whom voted against it last summer.

Maggie must be smiling now! Because nothing has really changed about the location, except that it will now be located above ground. Which is now p. o. ing the owner of a neighboring building that features expensive apartments. He wasn’t opposed to Maggie’s Ren Square last year!

City councilman Carla Palumbo was a vigorous supporter of the “Mayor’s Plan” for the bus terminal tonight; she was just as vigorous an opponent of Maggie’s plan last summer. That must have seemed a bit ironic because Carla excused that action by saying it was the theatre component of RenSquare that roused her opposition to it. The theatre component was something that Maggie was willing to foreswear to get the ball rolling on Ren Square before the money for it disappeared. Carla also spoke that by delaying on the vote tonight, we might “lose” the $50-odd million dollars that was earmarked for this purpose. We “lost” $270-odd million dollars when the Democrats on city council shot down Ren Square last year. Nobody noticed the irony in that, either. But Carla DID mention the jobs that this would create; ironically, so would have constructing Ren Square.

But she was correct in saying that “nothing was going on in downtown.” And this won’t change that!

The genetic males on city council all wussily agreed to vote for the bus terminal, but reserved the right to change their votes at a later date ( can that be done? ) if they don’t like what they see. Adam McFadden DID talk about “shelter” during our inclement weather, but he also brought up a good point: why are we locating a bus terminal in the same place they shot down last year? But he voted for it nonetheless. I expected better from Adam and Dana; as for Haag, he can be forgiven: he’s only been in Rochester for three years, and really knows nothing about the city he has been called upon to represent. And he’s trying to please the party that put him, an outsider, into power. And it shows.

The other ladies on city council blithely voted for the above-ground bus terminal, almost unthinkingly, although I was rather confused by councilman Elaine Spaull ( as per usual ). I wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about or how she would vote until she voted for it. Perhaps that accounts for her success as a politician!

With the exception of Carolee, all of them mentioned “the process.” Their explanation of “the process” is that they can vote to approve it as it stands now, and then vote to change it as more information comes in. Which is probably what they could have done last year with Ren Square, except that was a “Republican” plan, and this is one sponsored by a Democrat.

But it seems that Ren Square hasn’t been laid to rest after all. The Democrats have resurrected it and mutilated it. Now let’s see them try to keep it alive!

But, once again, I would have to say that, for exposing her huge set of brass cajones by opposing the majority of her own party, the mayor and his administration on a plan that they should have laid to rest a year ago, Carolee Conklin was the only real man present on city council tonight!

Contributors

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.